The Fast Hartley Transform Algorithm

The fast Hartley transform (FHT) is similar to the Cooley-Tukey fast Fourier transform (FFT) but performs much faster because it requires only real arithmetic computations compared to the complex arithmetic computations required by the FFT. Through use of the FHT, discrete cosine transforms (DCT) and discrete Fourier transforms (DFT) can be obtained. The recursive nature of the FHT algorithm derived in this paper enables us to generate the next higher order FHT from two identical lower order FHT's. In practice, this recursive relationship offers flexibility in programming different sizes of transforms, while the orderly structure of its signal flow-graphs indicates an ease of implementation in VLSI.